ABSTRACT
After its victory in World War II, the Soviet Union had political and economic challenges to meet if it was to redeem its position as a superpower alongside the United States. The most fundamental task facing the Soviet leadership was the need to modernize Soviet economy. In the Soviet Union it had been realized that intensive economic growth in the United States and Western Europe was mainly based on technological progress as opposed to increases in labour and capital input.1 Thus, during the leadership of N. S. Khrushchev (1956-64) a modernization model was adopted the primary aim of which was to transform extensive economic growth into intensive growth with the help of sophisticated technology.2 This modernization model forced the Soviet leadership to embark on a more active quest for cooperation with the West, with a view to sharing in the benefits of Western technological progress.3
